Generation of Energy-Optimal Low-Thrust Forced Periodic Trajectories in the CR3BP

TL;DR

This paper develops a method to generate energy-efficient, periodic low-thrust trajectories in the CR3BP, providing bounds, validation, and analysis of trajectory costs in the Earth-Moon system.

Contribution

It introduces a novel approach to compute energy-optimal periodic trajectories in the CR3BP with bounds and validation techniques.

Findings

Decreasing perilune distance is costly in Earth-Moon orbits.

Trajectory bounds in position and velocity space are established.

Validation confirms the effectiveness of the proposed method.

Abstract

In this work, we investigate trajectories that require thrust to maintain periodic structure in the circular restricted three-body problem (CR3BP). We produce bounds in position and velocity space for the energy-constrained reachable set of initial conditions. Our trajectories are energy-optimal and analyzed via linear analysis. We provide validation for our technique and analyze the cost of deviating in various directions to the reference. For our given reference, we find that it is relatively expensive to decrease perilune distance for orbits in the Earth-Moon system.